Panda-monium

At the Berlin Zoo you can find 20,000 animals - not including the cockroaches they feed to the monkeys. It’s actually the most diverse zoo in all of Europe with over 1,250 species. But, for me the coolest part about the zoo is how happy all of the animals are. Never in my life have I seen animals so active or had direct interactions with animals in the zoo. 

Have you ever seen a panda run? Before this I hadn’t because they had always been so lethargic in other zoos I visited. Here they were climbing trees like crazy, running around, and looking genuinely happy. I may have cried, but we wont talk about that. 

When we visited the monkey house we encountered a group of black monkeys with the most articulate, strong tails I have ever seen. Previous to our arrival, one of the monkeys had been just sitting against the wall, but after he realized we were there he exhibited some very interesting behavior. He hung off a branch close to the glass by his tail with his back facing us, and then would aggressively spin his head around for a few seconds and then would look up at us. This went on for maybe 2 minutes. That was the most direct acknowledgment I have ever gotten from an animal in a zoo before. Like direct eye contact with this primate. 

We saw something absolutely heart breaking that I personally never expected to see in a zoo, but these animals aren’t domestic and they have natural predetoroal instincts that they will act on. We walked out of the monkey house and heard these loud screeches/cries, and my first assumption was that it was a howler monkey. We got closer to the outdoor enclosure and saw a crow with a broken wing on the ground, which is what was making the cries. The monkeys inside the pen were still and watching the crow, which couldn’t escape. Another crow was flying overhead trying its best to defend its friend. After another moment of stillness, a monkey close to the crow reached out and grabbed the crow by its other wing and dragged it down the rock face and to the ground, and the cries increased. It was at that point we couldn’t bear to watch anymore. The awful part was there were families with small children that watched the entire thing unaffected. It was like they were watching a TV show. The human behavior was just as shocking as the behavior of the monkeys. For a re-enactment, Jessie and Nathan performed the fatal moment for the crow. 

The zoo was a unique experience - I have never seen such a combo of happiness and base animal instincts and behavior.